What are YOU doing here!?

Thank you all for sharing your stories!

I suppose I tend to think in terms of "big world" so I'm surprised by all of these "small world" stories.

Two summers ago, I was living in Vancouver, BC. My husband's job called for him to visit several towns and cities in the province, and that summer we drove to most of them. I'd take pictures and he'd work.
We decided to stay an extra day in Cranbrook, a site manager and his wife took us quadding up a mountain to a radio tower and fire lookout. I'd never been on a quad before. The view was gorgeous, saw a black bear and two cubs and an old school friend. There was a total of 11 people, 5 quads, 3 groups on the hill and fire look out guy... Weird.
Then, later, after a full day of scoping out the landscape, we went for dinner at an Italian restaurant. When we walked in I thought I heard my name, so I did, there sitting at a table was my Aunt and Uncle from Edmonton. They were returning from visiting a daughter in the Okanagan and had decided to stay the night. A freak snow storm in the Rockies had closed the highway up ahead.

Once, just once, I met a woman not my wife for dinner at a restaurant way across the river on a side street on a Thursday night.


That's where we ran into my wife's parents.
Joe(It was really good Vietnamese food)Nation

Lived in a small condo (apartment like building) small 4 floors - lived just north of Boston. Went to Orlando and bumped into one of the condo neighbors - her son was playing in his band at Disney.

Does this count? Probably not, but it's a good story.

I had just returned to San Angelo, Texas (which -look it up- is in the middle of nowhere) from temporary duty in Florida and stuck to my apartment door was an invitation to a cast party at the local theatre company.
(I was supposed to be a part of their current production but had been "called away." )
So, I go to the party and I'm seeing friends and some new people. One of the new people was a woman named Erica.

Here is our conversation as best I remember it.

Erica: You just got back here? From where?
Joe: Florida. I was gone about a month.
Erica: I just arrived myself, but from overseas.
Joe: You military?
Erica: No. I'm a teacher. I was at a school in Europe. I stopped here for a day to visit some old friends.
Joe: Whereabouts in Europe?
Erica: Turkey.
Joe: No kidding. My sister's in Turkey right now.
Erica: Really? Do you know where?
Joe: Izmir.
Erica: Izmir! I was in Izmir. What is she doing there?
Joe: Um. She's teaching at children's school.
Erica : .............What did you say your last name was?
Joe: My last name is Nation, and my sister's name... .
Erica: Your sister's name is AnnLouise. She had the schoolroom next to mine.
Joe: Wow!
Erica: When you write her about this tell her you meet "Erotica", which is what they used to call me, then she'll know you're telling the truth.
Joe: Can I get you another drink?

Joe(she left about an hour later to catch a plane to somewhere)Nation

That's amazing. Amazing is an overused word, but it fits re Exotica and your sister.

I don't have stories of my own to tell on all this, but I did have a boyfriend when I was in Los Angeles that had gone on a vacation at some point to Egypt, and there he and a buddy were in line at the pyramids and... yes, met two local friends who happened to be in the same line a few feet ahead.

Erotica?
EROTICA???

So what happened in the hour before she left to catch a plane?
You can tell us.

....not ..a ...single...thing...

There's needs be a thread.
Joe(Regrets, I have a few.)Nation

Oh well that reminds me of one that a lot of you probably know...

I was talking about my adventures at a housing co-op in Madison here on A2K. Occom Bill started sending me cryptic PMs. I didn't know what he was on about. Eventually it turned out that he was asking me if I knew people -- who I did know -- he just managed to spell every name slightly wrong so I took a while to connect the dots. Laura instead of Lora. That kind of thing.

Then it finally started getting through my thick skull and I asked him how the heck he knew that??!!! He gave a few more personal details, as I wracked my brains trying to figure out if I'd ever seen him at the co-op (I'd seen pictures of him already at that point), and then he finally let up and said he was talking to his sister on the phone at the time. And his SISTER I totally know! We lived at the co-op at the same time.

Several things?

Oops, that was Erotica! Was that a freudian slip when I called her Exotica? Nah.

I just got a new job in Columbia, SC.

I went to lunch with the folks in HR and the HR Manager's husband went to the same small high school I did, 600 miles away in Ohio, 30 years ago.

It happens a lot more than I would expect.

I was sitting in cafe in Poland, having Borch and eating some dumplings by myself during my travels round eastern europe, got talking to some Londoners and found they lived down my street.